Optimization of K-Means Clustering on Graphics Processing Unit Using Compute Unified Device Architecture

Abstract

Parallel data clustering aims at using algorithms and methods to extract knowledge from fat databases in rational time using high performance architectures. The computational challenge faced by cluster analysis due to increasing capacity of data can be overcome by exploiting the power of these architectures. The recent development in parallel power of Graphics Processing Unit enables low cost high performance solutions for general purpose applications. The Compute Unified Device Architecture programming model provides application programming interface methods to handle data proficiently on Graphics Processing Unit for iterative clustering algorithms like K-Means. The existing Graphics Processing Unit based K-Means algorithms highly focus on improvising the speedup of the algorithms and fall short to handle the high time spent on transfer of data between the Central Processing Unit and Graphics Processing Unit. A competent K-Means algorithm is proposed in this paper to lessen the transfer time by introducing a novel approach to check the convergence of the algorithm and utilize the pinned memory for direct access. This algorithm outperforms the other algorithms by maximizing parallelism and utilizing the memory features. The relative speedups and the validity measure for the proposed algorithm is elevated when compared with K-Means on Graphics Processing Unit and K-Means using Flag on Graphics Processing Unit. Thus the planned approach proves that communication overhead can be reduced in K-Means clustering.